A Beginner's Guide to Comparison Shopping

Posted by CPC_Andrew on June 21, 2010 in Uncategorized

Experts in Comparison Shopping often seem to use a language of their own. The purpose of this blog is to translate the basics of Comparison Shopping into readable, understandable English for consumers and merchants.

Part 9: Manage your Comparison Shopping Campaigns – Coupons, Coupons, Coupons

“I have had merchants increase revenue by 10% in a matter of weeks just from getting all the promotions listed on their site listed with PriceGrabber.” – Patrick C, PriceGrabber Account Manager.

Coupons are a great way to make your listings stand out from your competition especially on items that are constantly in “pricing wars.”

Above you see Improvement Direct lists a “20% off” coupon under “Free Shipping!” Though the item isn’t the lowest listed price you can get an idea of the impact that the coupon brings to a consumer trying to decide between merchants.

Each comparison shopping engine has their own criteria for adding coupons.

For PriceGrabber, merchants add coupons to individual products in their feed. 7-12 additional columns in the feed are required to specify the coupon’s special offer.

Merchants also need to notify their PriceGrabber Account Manager in order for PriceGrabber to set up their system to read the additional coupon columns

The coupons will go into PriceGrabber’s “Merchant Coupons” Section and they will be added to any products the coupon applies to.

This section is another area that consumers are drawn to while shopping.

Free Shipping is not a valid coupon unless it has a discount code. Coupons that work best are straight forward % off coupons that have a discount code.

The following links contain attachments for PriceGrabber’s coupon criteria and a sample PriceGrabber coupon feed template.

PriceGrabber coupon criteria

PriceGrabber coupon feed template

If you have any questions about coupons for specific comparison shopping engines please post a comment or e-mail me at Andrew@cpcstrategy and I’ll be happy to help you.

This blog post is part of a series I’m writing on the basics of Comparison Shopping.

About the AuthorAndrew is CPC Strategy's Director of Marketing, an expert in online retail strategy, product data and all things comparison shopping related. In September 2010, Andrew finished writing the first-ever Merchant Comparison Shopping Handbook which teaches online retailers the most effective way to start and manage their comparison shopping campaigns. Today Andrew spends most of his time consulting medium and large online retailers and online marketing agencies. You can contact Andrew directly at andrew@cpcstrategy.com or via phone at 619-297-3798. See all posts by this author here.